Spider
by khelil
Summary: Deidara makes people explode. Zetsu watches. Oneshot fadetoblack ZetsuDeidara ficlet by request.


For EnGee. 

Spider

"Katsu."

The small explosion that followed was muted by the flesh that surrounded the source. By the flesh that _had_ surrounded the source. A circle three meters in diameter was now stained mostly red, with amorphous lumps scattered in a ring around its center. A few of those lumps still quivered, slick surfaces glistening deep crimson in the afternoon light. Now and again, a fractured bone jutted outward from the muscle tissue like some broken claw tossed aside by an uncaring butcher.

A short distance away--but not far enough to escape all of the splattered blood--Deidara stood, hands still clasped together from his triggering seal. He wore a crooked smile on his lips, and his shadowed eyes shifted to the next person kneeling, shaking, but a few feet away.

He, too, had not managed to avoid the last blast. Greyish matter clung to his cheek, and the crimson was still too fresh to have dried in his hair. He did not seem to notice either of these.

"Deidara.." A low voice growled from behind the blonde man. "You shouldn't play with food like that. _It's a waste. Better to savor it now._"

Rolling his eyes, even though the speaker could not see the gesture, Deidara turned to face him. He regarded the man--_plant_--_construct_--a moment before replying, "Oh, I'm not playing.. I'm just giving them a personal demonstration on what art _really_ is, since they can't seem to grasp such an esoteric concept. They should be thankful, mhmm." He laughed lightly, gaze flickering back to the kneeling figure. "Besides, they didn't have any useful information, and I was asked to dispose of them. Mmmhm."

Zetsu's own gaze shifted to the prone form in front of them. He watched, entranced, as the sprayed blood slowly formed thin trails down the man's face, and droplets fell one-by-one to land on his quivering hand. He licked his lips.

The blonde caught the motion out of the corner of one eye.

"Ho... Did you come all the way out here because you wanted to help me, Zetsu-san?" A smile continued to play on his lips--this time it was more amused than earlier. "Or do you just enjoy watching me _play with food_, mmhm?"

Reaching down to the small bag at his hip, Deidara pinched a small bit of clay from within, then pressed it to the lips that eagerly parted on his palm. His smile spread as he watched Zetsu shift, staring at the last captive. Turning his hand over, he let the bit of clay fall from his hand--spat out from the mouth--and land on the rocky ground even as it started to change in shape and size.

The blonde took a few sauntering steps forward toward the kneeling man, clucking his tongue at the way those eyes widened at his approach and his pleas for his life increased in pitch and speed. His clay had begun to scuttle forward on elongated fingers when Deidara knelt down in front of the man.

_"The itsy-bitsy spider crawled up the water spout.."_

Lightly tracing two fingers down the side of the man's face, the blonde flicked at the bit of the grey matter until it fell to the ground. Twin lines marked its wake, and he continued their path across the man's jaw and to his lips, shushing hysterical pleas with the gesture.

_"Down came the rain and washed the spider out.."_

The clay, now nearly-finished in its formation, reached the man's knee and poked at it tentatively with two of its eight spindly legs. When the man whimpered in the back of his throat, Deidara's smile twisted into a cruel smirk. Fingers traced an imaginary line to his other cheek, and then down the side of his neck, leaving a bright crimson streak in their wake.

_"Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.."_

Bringing his other hand up to cup the side of the man's head, Deidara tilted it back until his throat was easily exposed. Perversely, teasingly, he traced light circles with his thumb tip along the man's temple, his voice dropping to a near-whisper as the tiny clay spider crept up the man's side and then around his back until it clung to his shirt, just between his shoulder blades.

_"Then the itsy-bitsy spider crawled up the spout again.."_

He did not notice that Zetsu had crept up behind him by then. Nor would he have cared.

Deidara caught the man's lips in a vicious kiss, ignoring the high-pitched cry in the back of his throat and the hands that tried to clutch at the dark fabric of his cloak. Bringing his own hands together before him, the blonde pressed down on the man, pushing him back until he was certain that he would be properly shielded from the blast. It was only a small golem, but it would still be a lethal one. And he know full well how best to control its destructive properties to his greatest advantage.

Breaking the one-sided kiss, he grinned down at the wide-eyed man. Fresh blood coated his lips. And as he fluidly shifted his hands to form a seal, the single word he uttered was whispered, barely audible to the man who would never hear anything else again.

_"Katsu."_

Everything exploded in red, and for a moment, it almost seemed that the man surged forward to reclaim the kiss. Until his head fell back to his crumpled form, the base of the skull removed entirely.

A hand reached down from behind Deidara, roughly grasping his chin and turning his face to one side where another face already waited--two-toned, viridian, and patterned neatly down the middle. Zetsu's encasing shell had parted in anticipation, and it almost seemed to quiver with freshly-butchered meat so close.

This time, it was not the blonde who pressed in for the kiss, although it was just as brutal. And tongue and teeth eagerly--_greedily_--lapped up the crimson flowing down his face and the glistening pieces of muscle tissue that had accompanied them.

Well, he _had_ finished his assigned task of silencing their captives. And he _had_ intentionally put on a show in front of Zetsu.

Deidara tilted his head back as lips and tongue and teeth trailed lower, his own hands sliding beneath the other Akatsuki's dark clothes.

He figured that he might as well enjoy what came of things. Especially from such an appreciative audience.

Sasori-danna might be the only other true artist in Akatsuki, but at least Zetsu would always patron his work.


End file.
